Three Mothers
by Andi88
Summary: Three very different women, all mothers in their own right. They're a strange sort of family, but maybe it takes extreme circumstances to remember that. Snow is mortally injured in Neverland, and Regina is the only one there who can help. But will she? *Slight spoilers for season 3, but nothing not seen in the TV promos, and mild graphic description of injury.*
1. Chapter 1

**Greetings! Welcome to my brand new two-part fic!**

**A couple of things before you begin:**

**First, this story, as a whole, is based on MINOR season 3 spoilers, but nothing you couldn't glean from the TV promos, I made sure of that. But if you're trying to stay 100% spoiler free, I suggest you save this one for later. :)**

**Second, the first part of this fic is similar in concept to one of my other fics, "Powerful," but I assure you this one has a completely different direction. Just wanted to point that out though so you know that I copy only myself. :D**

**Third, ah, well, there isn't really a third. So read on!**

* * *

Three women trudged through the jungle.

One woman kept herself walking between the other two, constantly trying to avoid any more fights, while her heart beat for only one purpose: find her son.

The second woman was all alert concentration, her ears straining to hear any hint of danger, her bow at the ready, wishing she could reach out her soul and complete her single goal: find her grandson.

The third woman walked before the other two, but did not really lead the way as only that obnoxious second woman knew what the hell she was doing. Her mind was focused on one thing and one thing only: find her son.

* * *

Those Lost Boys were sneaky little bastards. And the word "boys" was used very loosely, as most of them were nearly men yet ruthless in the way only children could be.

Emma had been surrounded by children from the worst kinds of backgrounds for _her _entire childhood, so she knew well that a child could be crueler than any adult. So even though her mother hesitated to shoot them with her handy bow, Emma wouldn't blink, not if they intended to kill _them. _Not if it meant the difference between her life and theirs, or more importantly Henry's life.

Besides, Gold had warned them that even the younger boys, while still clinging to their youth, were older than any of them and in many ways, it showed.

Fairytales got everything wrong.

So not only were they callous, brain-washed minions of a being darker than the Dark One, they were _smart_. They had hundreds of years of being sneaky little bastards under their belt, and they used it.

It resulted in the separation of their group. Gold had already gone off on whatever errand he needed to do, and now David and Hook were God knew where and Emma, Snow and Regina were together, trying their damnedest to work together and not get killed.

Or not kill each _other_.

"Don't you have some kind of lover's intuition?" Emma asked Snow irritably. "Some kind of 'I will always find you' meter that can lead us to David and Hook?" Regina glared over her shoulder at them and rolled her eyes.

Snow, for her part, chuckled. "I'm afraid not. Our time spent 'finding' each other was usually done with old fashioned _looking_. Except for the time Charming used this," she held up her left hand, wiggling her fingers to indicate her emerald ring. "To find me. But I think the magic's all used up."

"Can you do it?" Emma spoke a little louder to reach Regina, who was several paces ahead. "Regina, can you make her ring so that it can find David?"

Regina glanced back dubiously. "I would need my book, or a potion."

Emma growled. "I hate being separated. Those Lost Bastards are up to something."

Snow nodded in agreement before stumbling on a root, flashing Emma an appreciative smile when she reached out to steady her. "I hate it too. But I would feel it if Charming were in danger. Right now the best thing we can do is focus on finding a safe place to camp for the night."

It was only then that Emma realized that it had gotten completely dark. The moon was out, casting a ghostly light, illuminating their way so at least they weren't fumbling in the dark.

"I don't think it's safe to stop," Regina said, slowing a little until the others caught up to her. "We should keep going."

"We can't keep moving without rest, Regina," Snow said patiently. "We've been moving all day, and Emma still has that cut that needs tended to."

"I'm fine," Emma said. Half of her strongly agreed with Regina, that they needed to _keep _moving, and not stop until they'd found Henry. But the other half, the more practical half, knew that Snow was right, and that they couldn't go forever without rest. She'd be useless to Henry if she was about to drop from exhaustion or infection from her superficial wound on her shoulder inflicted by a boy earlier.

"All the same," Snow said, her tone taking on that kind of annoying, kind of reassuring maternal tone that she lapsed into only occasionally. It wasn't even unique to Snow. Mary Margaret did it too. "I need to clean your wound, Emma, and we need to rest for a couple of hours. We'll take turns keeping watch, so we won't be snuck up on."

"You don't _get_ to make the decisions!" Regina snapped. "You are not _princess_ here."

Snow leveled Regina with a look that bordered on a glare, but not quite getting there. She spoke coolly and without temper. "Neither are you queen. I'm just as worried, just as anxious to keep searching for Henry as you are. But we're worthless to him if we don't take a moment to collect ourselves!"

"Perhaps _you_ need rest," Regina sneered. "But _I _need to find _my _son. And I will _not_ rest until I do! I will not be slowed by your weakness!"

"She's not weak," Emma said, lowly and with no little bit of warning. "She's the only one of us keeping things in perspective. And she's also _right._ We're only wasting time arguing. We'll stop for a couple of hours, regroup, and then get moving again."

Seeing she was outnumbered, and not liking it one bit, Regina relented grudgingly. Emma really didn't blame her, she was chomping at the bit too, but she'd learned the hard way to listen to her mother about things like this. In matters of wilderness survival, Snow White was truly the authority. And though Regina was fuming, Emma knew she wouldn't dare go out on her own, so they kept moving, looking for a place Snow thought would be safe enough.

"High ground," Snow murmured. "High ground is what's best. Harder to ambush that way."

Emma nodded and trotted a little ahead, scoping for higher ground.

"Maybe that way?" Emma said, pointing to where the damp jungle became a rocky hillside and there was a steady slope upward.

Snow nodded, her eyes praising Emma, and Emma tried not to be pleased about that.

"Regina," Snow said as they started up the incline. "You try and get some sleep while I tend Emma's cut, then I'll take the first watch and let both of you get some rest. I'll wake you after an hour, and then you'll wake Emma after another hour, does that sound okay?"

"I'll just stay up," Regina said tersely. "I won't be able to rest let alone sleep."

"_Try_, Regina," Snow insisted. "I know you're worried, believe me, I know…"

"And just _how _would you know?" Regina asked. "You know _nothing _of what it is to be a mother!"

Snow was stunned into silence, but Emma almost saw red. "Watch it, Regina!" she hissed.

Regina smirked. "It's true. No sense denying it."

"And whose fault is that?" Snow asked quietly, without malice, and then sped up to walk ahead.

"What the hell is the matter with you?" Emma growled when Snow was out of earshot. "This is hardly the time or place for your stupid, petty games! My mother is trying to _help_. She knows more about this, about being in the wilderness, about _finding_ people than either of us! You just get a sick satisfaction in seeing her hurt, don't you?"

Regina didn't flinch during Emma tirade, only walked on smoothly. "As a matter of fact I do."

Emma was about to open her mouth to say something else, or to maybe take the flat of her sword to Regina's head, but her mother's shout and a sudden burst of activity ahead sucked even the air from her and she shot ahead as fast as her tired legs would carry her.

The Lost Boys had found them, and Snow was valiantly fighting off two with mainly her fists and feet, since at the close range her arrows did little good.

Emma drew her sword and launched herself at one of the boys attacking Snow, slicing his leg and then kicking him in the chest to get him away from her mother. Regardless of what she'd thought earlier about killing them without a second thought, in actual practice she couldn't bring herself to deliver a fatal blow to a boy who by all appearances looked only a little older than Henry.

Regina was doing her best to repel attackers with her magic, but they were adept at deflecting it and she wasn't physically strong enough to fight these tough boys with her hands.

All of a sudden, the boys stopped attacking, and as one took a step back. Emma held her sword at the ready, and she felt Snow draw her bow beside her. Emma was shaking from exertion, even though the fight had barely begun, and she was really seeing the merit in Snow insistence that they rest.

Another boy, one taller and a little older than the rest, emerged from the shadows. _Felix_, he'd said his name was, and just the sight of him gave Emma shivers. Though he _looked_ no older than fifteen, his eyes betrayed his true age, and were filled with lifetimes of knowledge, anger, and not a trace of compassion.

"What the hell do you _want_?" Emma demanded, raising her sword toward him.

"You can't have the boy back," Felix said calmly, with just a hint of amusement in his voice. "It's really better for all of you if you just get on your little boat and go home."

Emma lowered her sword, though she didn't loosen her grip, and approached the boy, ignoring Snow's gasp of dismay. "Listen you little prick," she spat. "If you think we're gonna walk away without our kid, you got another thing coming. You have _no _idea who you're dealing with."

"Neither do you," Felix said, and Emma wanted so badly to beat that smirk off his face. "You're sure you won't take us up on our offer? Neverland has no use for grown-ups, and you'll either leave the hard way or the easy way, depending on you."

"Go to hell!"

Felix shrugged. "Have it your way."

It happened so fast. One minute the boy was standing there passively with his empty hands clasped in front of him, and the next he held a long knife, and was jabbing it up toward her abdomen.

There wasn't time to react, and Emma still couldn't move when she found herself being shoved violently to the side.

She sat up, dazed and lacking agonizing pain she felt she be there, and looked up to try to understand the scene before her.

Snow was standing before Felix, where she'd been standing a split second ago. And there was knife sticking through one end of her ribcage…and out the other.

Felix drew his knife out with a harsh tug, and Snow lurched, crumbling to the ground.

It all happened in the span of mere seconds, but to Emma it happened in slow motion.

"NO!" Emma sobbed, scrambled on her hands and knees to Snow's side. Her vision swam at the sight of the blood, gushing out in impossible quantities from just under her left breast and pooling beneath her.

She pressed her hand tightly against the wound, trying in wild desperation to staunch the flow.

Snow lifted her head, wheezing wetly, choking for breath. "Em…ma…"

"Hang on!" Emma couldn't breathe either, could barely make her voice work. "H…hang on, Mom. You're gonna be okay, I've got you!"

Regina was standing to the side, watching with wide eyes.

Snow's eyes were fluttering. She was straining to keep them open, keep them focused on Emma's face. Blood was dripping from the corner of her lips. "I…love…you…"

"Mom!" Emma cried. "Please, Mama…"

"Let this be a warning," Felix said, unmoved from the same spot, wiping his blade clean on another boy's cloak, a bored expression on his face. "Get off our island."

Emma looked up, having only just realized that they were still there. Something boiled up inside her, something like the power that surged in her veins when she helped Regina diffuse the trigger. Only this was stronger, and it carried a black stain that clouded her vision and ignited her blood.

She locked eyes with Felix when she screamed, a blood-curdling, anguished, hate-filled shriek that had all the boys, even the uncaring Felix backed away in fear.

The power that built up in her body to the point of pain erupted, reaching out from her hands to the creatures who would take her mother away. Who would try to stop her from saving her son. She heard screaming, and not only her own, before all was dark.

_**To be continued...**_

* * *

**Next time we take a peek into Regina's POV. Will Regina let her arch nemesis die? Stay tuned for the exciting conclusion to find out!**

**Don't forget to review! Part two will be up soon! (Well before the premiere, I promise.)**


	2. Chapter 2

**Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed! I hope you enjoy part two! **

**And can we all just take a moment to thank Ginnifer Goodwin for that painfully adorable picture she tweeted that gave me a perfect cover? I couldn't resist using it!**

* * *

Regina was frightened, and that never happened. And worse, it was a group of miscreant _boys_ who were besting her. She shot fireballs at them, blasted them away, but their magic, while not _stronger _than hers, had a way of deflecting it. And the trees in this place wouldn't obey her command to reach out and entrap the little beasts.

Damned fairy magic.

Everything stopped at once when the leader appeared, Felix was his name. Regina hung back while Emma confronted him, saw Snow inching closer and closer to the blonde's side. Then she watched in astonishment as, seemingly all at the same time, Felix drew a dagger, lunging at Emma, but finding purchase not in Emma's chest but in Snow's, who had dropped her bow and pushed Emma roughly away, taking the blow herself.

Though it happened quickly, time seemed to slow down as Snow collapsed, blood spurting from her body. The sight shouldn't have affected her. She'd seen countless amounts of blood, but this made her stomach churn.

Emma crawled over to her, breaking out into racking sobs Regina wouldn't have thought her capable of, and cradled her mother in her arms, giving Regina a painful jab of déjà vu at the sight of it. Emma was trying to stop the flow of blood, but even from where Regina stood she could see it was useless.

"Let this be a warning," Felix said, trying to sound disinterested while looking incredibly pleased with himself. "Get off our island."

Emma's head snapped up at that, and Regina knew the very instant that it did that something was going to happen.

She wasn't oblivious to Emma's power, not from the moment she realized Emma _had _magic. And Regina could see it, _feel _it gathering, and was staggered by the strength of it. She immediately threw up a shield around herself, watching in satisfaction at the way the boys cowered. Even that fool Felix was backing away.

Emma gave a sharp, anguished wail, and then there was a blinding light emitting from her outstretched hands and Regina had to look away as well as cover her ears against the piercing sound. The ground shook beneath her feet, and the boys cried out in fear, not quite drowned out by the inhuman, banshee-like scream coming from Emma.

Just when Regina began to wonder if her shield was going to be enough to protect her, it was over, and when she opened her eyes, the boys were gone. Simply gone. She couldn't be sure if they were dead or just sent away, but she lowered the shield because now Emma lay unconscious beside her dying mother.

Regina approached them, glaring down at the way Emma collapsed with her arms entwined with Snow's, who's breath was still coming in rasping bursts, and she weakly held the collar of Emma's jacket. They lay nose-to-nose, and in the very back of Regina's mind she noted just how alike they looked.

"…'mma…" Snow croaked, searching Emma's face for life. "…'mma…"

"She'll live," Regina said, not sure _why _she was assuring this woman. "She exerted too much magic, but she'll live."

Snow's eyes flickered up and to the side, but couldn't turn her head to see Regina.

But Regina _wanted _her to see her. How fitting was it that the last face Snow White ever saw, was _hers_?

She knelt down on the other side of Snow and rolled her over onto her back, propping her shoulders against her knee, heedless of the gore warming her leg. The blood was clotting, no longer pulsing out, but she was whiter than her namesake, and her rattling breath was slowing down. Regina wanted to watch, wanted to _see _the life fade from her eyes until there was nothing left.

And she hadn't even had to do it herself. She was blameless, even Emma knew it, and therefor Henry could not hate her for it. He didn't have to know that she sat and watched his grandmother die, when she could possibly have done something about it.

Snow was staring at her, gaze unwavering. Breath ever slowing.

Regina's mouth turned up into a smile, but it felt more like a grimace. "Goodbye, Snow White," she whispered.

Tears leaked from the corners of Snow's wide eyes, leaving trails in the dirt covering her face.

This was what Regina wanted…wasn't it? She'd longed for a way to end Snow White for years. So why…_why_ when it was here, and she was watching her most hated enemy slowly die…that she felt no satisfaction? No pleasure?

Where was the closure?

A touch startled her, and she looked down to find Snow's cold hand resting atop hers, where it sat over her wound. Regina didn't even remember putting it there.

Snow was still looking at her. She wasn't pleading for help, wasn't accusing. Wasn't gasping out final words or begging Regina to deliver a message to her Charming. She didn't look angry, or even sad. She just looked…scared. As if her eyes were asking her, '_please don't leave me to die alone._'

And then Snow's breath hitched until barely any air was getting in at all, and she jolted in pain, whimpering as her eyes widened impossibly more in abject fear. The kind of fear brave Snow White rarely displayed. Regina had seen that precise look before, the moment a small child looked up at her for the first time, terrified and hurt from being thrown from her horse. Terrified and hurt and desperate for comfort.

Somehow, Regina felt that if anyone, even David or Emma, had been holding her in that moment, Snow would have attempted to hide her fear with that impossible and maddening strength of hers. Somehow she knew that Snow only let it go in her presence.

_Why?_ She was finally getting what she wanted. Why did she look down at that most hated face and see only a little girl with cherub cheeks and a smile that lit up a room?

"_Are you all right?"_

"_Yes, but I'll never ride again!"_

"_Nonsense! The only way to overcome fear is to face it. To get back on that horse as soon as possible!"_

"_Thank you…"_

"_Regina."_

"_I'm Snow. Snow White!"_

Why did this happen? Why that every time Regina tried to extract her revenge, _every damned time _could she not get that memory out of her head?

Snow's eyes fluttered shut, only to be forced open again. This time, when she took one last shuddering breath, she spoke. Spoke as if she was reading Regina's mind. "I got…back 'n…th'horse…"

Releasing a frustrated sob, Regina pressed more firmly against the wound, sending her magic shooting through it as quickly as she could, trying to mend what had been destroyed before it was too late.

Unless it was already too late.

Snow convulsed in agony, doubling in on herself. Regina raised her shoulders higher, to rest against her own chest, and propped her chin upon a mop of unruly hair that was so much like Henry's. "Hold on," she groaned, feeling the strain of forcing so much energy at once. "I'm not as good at this as Rumple."

Rumple was so learned in the act of healing that he could do it quickly, so that the injured person could not differentiate the pain of injury and the pain of healing until it was simply gone. Regina, however, wasn't as fast, so the person being healed felt every tissue and sinew and vein and organ unnaturally force itself back into place.

Snow cried. A pitiful, childlike cry, but Regina held her tighter.

She tried to ignore the way Snow clutched frantically to Regina's collar. The same way she'd clutched Emma. The same way Henry had clutched _Regina_ when they thought their world was about to end.

She didn't know for sure if it would work. Perhaps Snow was too far gone. But she pushed more magic into the woman's body, sealing the last bit of skin closed.

Snow went limp, and for a heartbeat Regina thought she was dead, but she was breathing. Steadier with every gasp.

Regina felt Snow's body relax, relief evident in every muscle. But she didn't move away, didn't release her hold on Regina's jacket. And Regina, damn it all, didn't let her go either.

Finally Snow's death grip slackened, and Regina lowered her back down, still supporting her head with one hand.

Snow blinked up at her, in amazement or gratitude or maybe both as color slowly seeped back into her face. Regina willed her not to say anything, tried to convey it with her face. Snow must have read it, because she remained silent, allowing her breath to return to her.

"You'll live, too," Regina said quietly, confident now that it was true, despite Snow's pallor and weakness. She'd live, and heal quickly.

Those words seemed to remind Snow of someone else, and she managed to bend her neck just enough to see Emma, who was moaning and trying to sit up.

"Emma?" Snow whispered, her voice wobbly and weak.

"Mom?!" Emma cried, and then stared in confusion at them.

Only then did Regina realize how horrifically intimate their positions were, her holding Snow's upper body close to her own, and Snow's hand still loosely holding the collar of her jacket. She hurriedly, yet gently, pulled away from Snow, letting Emma scoot into place to pull her mother's head and shoulders into her lap.

"I'm okay, Emma," Snow said, her voice strengthening. She reached up and brushed away the tears streaming down Emma's face. "Shh, Emma-honey, it's okay."

Emma looked back up at Regina, who now stood awkwardly to the side, picking at her blouse. "You saved her?" Emma asked, voice deep with fatigue and emotion.

Regina didn't answer, didn't make eye contact. But she didn't miss the expression on Snow's face when she pulled herself into a seating position and gazed up at her. It was another look Regina hadn't seen directed at her in a very long time…from anyone…except Henry.

* * *

With Emma's exhaustion and Snow's healed injury, they really had no choice but to camp and rest at that point. Regina, again, insisted that she would keep watch through the night, but otherwise said not a word. She kept her distance from the mother and daughter, and stared silently into the night.

Emma could barely stand, so Snow positioned her backpack for Emma to use as a pillow, and all but pushed her to lie down.

"You need to sleep too," Emma said wearily, eyelids drooping.

"I will," Snow said. "Believe me, I'll sleep. You'd be surprised where and in what conditions you.'re able to sleep when you're tired enough, huh?"

Emma smiled slightly and nodded, and Snow's heart twisted at how her sleepy eyes and dreamy quirk of her lips made her look so young. Snow could just _see _the little girl Emma was in moments like that.

"She really saved you," it wasn't a question, because it was obviously true. Emma didn't seem disbelieving, just grateful.

"Yeah, she did," Snow said softly. "Again."

"You sure you're okay?" Emma asked for the five-hundredth time.

"I feel fit as a fiddle, really. You close your eyes, honey, and I'll be right here when you wake up."

Normally Emma recoiled strongly from being spoken to that way, like a child, but Snow knew that she'd been so rattled and terrified, both of Snow's near-death and her exorbitant use of magic, that it may just be what she needed.

"Don't leave me," Emma whispered, and Snow knew full well she didn't just mean for the night.

Snow leant down, and giving in to a temptation she so rarely indulged in, kissed Emma on the brow. "I'll never leave you, Emma. Not if I have anything to say about it. I love you."

Emma closed her eyes, unable to fight them any longer, but not before she could drowsily mutter, "I love you, too."

Once she was certain Emma was asleep, Snow stood up slowly, mindful that her body was still recuperating from the sudden healing of a mortal wound and tremendous amount of blood loss, which Regina's magic could not completely restore.

At the thought of Regina's magic, Snow turned around and looked over to where the woman was sitting on a log, gazing out at the moonlit meadow below. Snow touched her abdomen where the knife wound was, a phantom pain making her flinch.

When she was laying there, feeling the life bleed out of there, fighting for every small breath, she stared up at Regina as she hovered above her. Her devastation was immense, not just because she didn't want to die, which she didn't, but because she would die without telling Charming she loved him, without kissing her grandson, without making a lifetime of loneliness up to a daughter who deserved the world. She had longed to tell Regina those things, if only because she was the only one there, but knew, knew without even feeling bitterness, that it was no use. Regina was going to watch her die, and maybe at long last, she move on with her life.

Snow deeply regretted her moment of weakness in asking Regina to take her life back in Storybrooke, regretted more than anything else. But in Regina's arms, dying anyway, she couldn't bring herself to blame Regina for being glad about it. So she'd said nothing, not even to apologize for the things she'd done Regina blamed her for. But she'd reached for Regina's hand, in a last selfish effort not to feel alone as she slipped away. The inexplicable desire for contact with this woman, who hated her very being, was one she'd battled with since she was a little girl.

What had changed? What made Regina change her mind and save her? Was it the same reason that, even after _all_ the evil Regina had done, even after ruining her life and taking her daughter away, that she _just couldn't _hate her?

Snow thought back to every time Regina had tried to destroy her, and realized with an almost sickening understanding that, despite _everything_, despite a thousand opportunities, Regina was incapable of doing what she claimed she wanted to do. Kill her.

Send a huntsman to do it, put her to sleep, curse her away, but it had never worked.

If Regina truly wanted her dead, she'd be dead. Regina was no fool, but she was damaged. They both were. Sad and damaged.

Feeling like it was probably a mistake, Snow walked over to where Regina sat, stopping a few paces behind her.

"Thank you," she murmured quietly.

"I don't want your thanks," Regina snapped, but it lacked any venom.

"I know," Snow said. "I'll tell Henry what you did, he's going to be so proud of you."

Regina nodded, turning her head to the side but not looking at her. "Thank you. I didn't do it for Henry though."

"I know."

"This changes nothing."

"I think we both know that's not true, Regina."

"…I know."

Regina looked up and met Snow's eyes at last, though Snow couldn't quite read her expression with the moon behind her. But Snow smiled, and gave one small nod, then returned to her daughter to give in to her bone-deep weariness, strangely comforted knowing Regina was keeping watch.

* * *

Three mothers rested in the dark.

One mother slept deeply, dreaming only of her kid, happy and safe and home with his family, being hugged by his grandmother.

The second mother wrapped herself around her daughter, stroking long hair and thinking of her grandson, and of another, and what could have been, and what will never be.

The third mother sat in silence, mind busy with plans to save her child, while in the back of her mind was a different child, smiling up at her with that same look only two children had ever given her. She'd seen that look only shortly before, though it was slightly damaged, it was the same…

Love.


End file.
